Protecting Your Computer from Viruses

Anyone with a home computer knows better than to leave his/her computer unprotected against viruses, Trojans, and other assorted malware. They make your computer run slowly, they corrupt your files, they flood your inbox with spam, and so on and so on. For as long as there have been home computers, there have been computer viruses.

If you've been keeping up with Apple, you may remember some years ago when Steve Jobs was selling Macs on the basis that Mac users don't ever need to worry about viruses. Great sales pitch, to be sure, but more recently, Steve Jobs has sheepishly admitted that "Mac users may want to invest in some anti-virus software, after all."

So, no matter your operating system, your computer is not safe from viruses. Even a computer sold on the strength of being immune to viruses is not, in fact, immune.

The fact is that the people who program these computer viruses are just as capable of keeping up with the technology as the people who program anti-virus software. There is a constant evolution on both sides. As the anti-virus software gets stronger, the virus makers have to get stronger to keep infecting computers, and as the viruses get stronger, the anti-virus must be made stronger in order to fight off virus infections.

In all likelihood, this sort of constant one-upmanship between virus and anti-virus will probably continue for as long as the modern home computer is a part of our daily lives.

In the interest of giving the reader a full understanding of computer viruses and how to keep one’s computer safe from them, we'll start off with...  

The Definition of a Virus

The term "virus" is actually a broad label that is applied to a number of categories of malicious software. An actual "computer virus" in the strictest sense of the term is defined as a program that can make a copy of itself and infect a user's computer without that user's knowledge or consent.

The word "virus" is also applied to malware that doesn't quite fall into this category, like spybots, adware, worms, and so on. These programs are not technically "viruses," but using the term “virus” as shorthand for all malware gets the point across quickly.  

Although they may be able to infect your computer without your knowledge, many spybots and adware bots are not actually capable of self-replication, and thus, are not technically viruses.

A Trojan may contain a virus, but a Trojan is actually something that you download onto your computer with your own consent. It is, as the name suggests, a file that promises to be one thing, but is in fact another, such as an application that displays pop-up ads on your computer every time you start an Internet browser, or even spybots, capable of stealing vital information to be sent to remote users.

A worm is a program that will download itself to your computer without your consent. It's interesting to note that worms are not inherently necessarily malevolent.  

There was a software company in Japan that was working on "benevolent worms." These were worm programs that would find routes around your computer's security and patch them up. While these programmers were working with the best of intentions, the project was a failure simply because these benevolent worms were nonetheless eating up valuable bandwidth, which is the primary reason that worms are such a nasty thing to deal with in the first place.

Spyware is used, as the name suggests, to literally spy on users. While you are using your computer, a remote user can actually observe from, perhaps, thousands of miles away, writing down your email passwords and credit card numbers as you work. Other spybots may not show your work in progress to other users, but may record certain details and send them to a hacker at a later date.

Adware and Spamware are exactly what you think they are. They find websites that you visit frequently, they mark your email address and your Internet proxy address, and they flood you with tons of spam and pop-ups.

It's worth knowing the definitions of all of these different types of viruses simply so you'll know what you're looking for when shopping for anti-virus programs. Most of us are happy to simply keep calling them all "viruses." but a program that boasts of its capability to search for and destroy viruses may actually not be able to do the same for adware, spambots, spyware, worms, trojans, and so on.

In other words, either make sure that your security program can check for all of the above or use a combination of various programs to make certain that you are fully protected. 

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